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White Earth debt reported to exceed $9
million RBC Rep. Turney let off easy in DUI plea
By Gary Blair
White Earth is now in debt to the tune
of $9 million and the reservation's
$60,000 salaried executive director,
Diana King, is openly seeking
employment elsewhere, Press/ON
sources said this week.
The size of the debt was disclosed
when Mike Robinson, the
reservation's new public safety
director, asked King to purchase two
new snowmobiles for use by the
conservation department. King was
heard by those outside of her office as
she dropped the amount of the
reservation' s debt as part of her reason
for only allowing the purchase of one
snow machine. "You can only have
one, because the reservation is $9
million in debt," she was overheard
saying.
Snowmobiles and other equipment
used by the reservation's conservation
department were reported to have been
either stolen or destroyed when they
were left unprotected by former
officers.
In response to the White Earth debt,
your writer was told this week: "Now
that Rickie Clark, (the reservation's
former councilperson) is outof prison,
maybe he could let Robinson use some
ofthe snowmobiles that he used stolen
money to purchase. Or, maybe our
leaders could ask the snowmobile
White Earth/to Pg. 6
Feds void Table Mountain compact for
gaming
By Doug Casgraux
In a decision that could put the Table
Mountain Tribal Casino in jeopardy,
the Department of Interior has rejected
the Gaming Compact signed by Vern
Castro as Tribal Chairman ofthe Table
Mountain Band of Indians and Gov.
Pete Wilson (R) on behalf of the State
of California. Assistant Secretary of
the Interior on Indian Affairs Kevin
Gover said in a statement, "A long
term gaming compact is a grave
commitment by a tribe. Given the
uncertainty as to the legality of the
current leadership.we are unable to
consolidate the approved compact
represented as the will of the Table
Mountain People, that is why the
compact signed by Vern Castro has
been rejected.."
The U.S. Department of Interior in a
letter to the Table Mountain Tribal
administrator said that the Pala style
Compact was invalid because Vern
Castro's authority to negotiate was
invalid since he was not the "legitimate
chairman, representing the tribe's
concerns."
Gover also addressed a one-page to
letter to the legal and legitimate
Chairperson, Leanne Walker-Grant, not
Castro after she led as successful
recall effort to have Castro replaced as
the leader of Table Mountain
Rancheria. The surprising vote
ousting Castro and his government
erupted after nearly year-long disputes
between tribal factions regarding the
forced signing ofthe Pala Compact by
the tribe under pressure from tribal
attorney Howard Dickstein.
Dickstein, who is no stranger to
California Indian Gaming, represents
all the Indian tribes signatory to the
Feds/to pg. 5
Bison management isn't the cut and dried
issue some think it is
(Unless your talking Jerky)
By Lisa Morris
An article, first printed in the
Minneapolis Star and Tribune then
later in the Native American Press,
claimed, "Politics masquerades as
wildlife management in Yellowstone
National Park." For the last four
winters, we've been hearing about the
terrible bison management practiced
by the State of Montana and the
National Park System. Time and again,
nationwide articles have criticized the
official problem, disease control, and
its official cure, shooting buffalo. As
with any issue, truth needs to be
separated from fiction.
In the first place, the article claims
Yellowstone National Park is the "last
wild remnant" ofthe Bison. This isn't
true. Wind Cave National Park,
Theodore Roosevelt NP, the National
Bison Range in Montana, Fort
Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge,
Wichita Mountain NWR, Wood
Buffalo and Elle Island NP's in
Canada, and the Delta Junction herd
in Alaska are all wild herds. Although
some of these herds do have fences,
not all do and not all will continue to
have them forever. But even with
fencing, one can not deny these
animals are wild. Imprudent tourists,
Indian tribes involved in global-warming
conference
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - NASA is
seeing if it can uncover native wisdom
about the problem of global warming.
Representatives of 550 American
Indian tribes began meeting here
Thursday at a NASA-sponsored
Native Peoples/Native Homelands
Climate Change conference to explore
the implications of global warming on
native people and their lands. The
conference continues through Sunday.
"Voices from Native America
promise to bring fresh perspectives to
the body of scientific evidence that
suggests humans are disrupting the
balance ofthe world's climate," said
Verna Teller, a former Isleta Pueblo
governor who is project director for
the conference.
"This workshop will stimulate
people, the science community and
business leaders who have specific
knowledge of climate change," she
said.
Scientists believe even a few degrees
rise in the average global temperature
could have catastrophic effects on
coastal cities, economic systems,
agriculture and river systems in the
next few decades.
"Native peoples, with their spiritual
traditions and long histories of change,
adaptation and survival, can provide
invaluable contributions to the
understanding of climate change as
wel I as the development of sustainable
economies," said Bob Gough, a
workshop co-chair and consultant to
the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy.
For example, he said, Indian lands
are relatively undisturbed and have a
unprecedented dialogue among native wide range of indigenous plant and
Indian gambling measure on pace to cost
$120 million
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The two sides
fighting overaballot measure to loosen
restrictions on Indian gambling are
now on pace to raise $120 million by
Election Day, twice the previous record
foran initiative.
As of Thursday, the Indian tribes
backing Proposition 5 had raised $65
million while the Nevada casino
industry funding the No campaign had
$28.7 million foratotalof$93.7 million,
according to the secretary of state's
office.
The previous record for a single
initiative, $57.5 million, was set two
years ago in California by a securities
fraud measure that failed. "I was just
floored," said Craig Holman, project
director for the Center for
Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.
"It breaks all global records when it
comes to spending. There has never
been an initiative campaign anywhere
in the world that has had this much
money spent for and against it."
The ballot measure would allow
about 40 tribes with casinos to continue
using popular and lucrative video slot
machines that Gov. Pete Wilson
contends are illegal. About 85 ofthe
state's 107 tribes support the measure.
If Proposition 5 is defeated, gambling
tribes would have to switch to a limited
number of new, lottery-style slot
machines that the Yes on 5 campaign
believes won't be as profitable.
Eleven tribes have signed alternate
agreements with Wilson allowing
limited gambling operations with the
lottery-style machines. The Indians
say they have to spend large amounts
of money to get their message out.
"The Nevada casinos are spending
tens of millions to protect their billion-
dollar profits while the Indians are
defendingtheireconomic survival that
provides jobs, reduces welfare and
provides self-reliance," said Steve
Indian/to pg.5
Cross-border smuggling comes to light
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Charles
Williams thought he had something
better coming to him. He settled for
revenge. Afterall, he had helped Larry
Miller buildan illicit family enterprise
into a multimillion-dollar smuggling
cartel that operated between the United
States and Canada.
It was Williams who said he made
the initial introductions on the St. Regis
Mohawk Indian Reservation and put
Miller in touch with tribal businessmen
willing to buy tractor-trailer loads of
contraband tobacco and liquor.
Williams said it was he who helped
Miller illegally secure a tribal liquor
permit.
His reward? As Miller's organization
grew into a bootlegging empire,
Williams found himself cut out ofthe
action. It was then he decided on
retal iation and began cooperating w ith
Internal Revenue Service
investigators.
Beginning Monday, federal
prosecutors will describe forafederal
courtjury how greed, arrogance, deceit
and, eventually, carelessness
undermined the reservation-based
smuggling ring, which they say sold
smuggling/to pg. 3
White Earth debt reported to exceed $9 million
Feds void Table Mountain compact for gaming
Children removed from home of reservation activist
Bison mgmt. isn't the cut and dried issue some think it is
New Chairman of Blackfeet Nation speaks of hope, pg. 3
Lawrence thanks voters of 4A, pg. 4
Voice ofthe People
e-mail, presson@paulbunyan.net
Native
American
^
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded 111988
Volume 11 issued
A weekly publication.
Copyright Native American Press, 1888
attempting to get near them and ending
up seriously injured, can attest to their
wildness.
The "masquerade" alluded to by the
article actually occurred because real
wildlife management methods were
stopped by earlier outcry from groups
such as "Earth First." At the time, the
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife
and Parks (MT FWP) was in charge of
the management of Bison that
wandered into Montana. But because
of propaganda espoused by these
groups, the governor now has the
Department of Livestock managing
Bison/to pg. 3
animal species that can serve as key
indicators to monitor and document
climate change.
A National Aeronautics and Space
Administration scientist who initiated
the workshop, Nancy Maynard, said
NASA also is interested in American
Indians' historical knowledge of
environmental events, cultural
perspectives, research and expertise.
She said those could be valuable to
non-native scientific observations and
research on global warming.
The workshop is the last of 20 NASA
has held around the country to analyze
the potential consequences of climate
change on crops, energy production,
land and water resources,
transportation, human health, social
systems, biological diversity and the
environment.
Photo by Annie Frazier Henry
The 1998 Two Rivers River Native Film and Video Festival, being held at the Walker Art Center Auditorium in
Minneapolis, November 21 and 22, is a yearlong series of screenings and dialogues about Native film and video for
the 21st century. Pictured above, from Singing Our Songs - Mary Stella Bare Shinbone, Women Singers and
Drummers of Old Agency.
They steal children don't they? Ramsey County,
Mille Lacs remove kids from home of reservation activist
By Jeff Armstrong
Under threat of arrest, Ramsey
County social workers last week
removed two children from the home
ofa Mille Lacs tribal activist who is
fighting an unjust eviction order by
reservation housing officials.
"Those little kids were just ripped
apart. They were just getting settled
in at school. Now they're sitting in a
shelter in Ramsey County," said Irene
Wade Benjamin ofthe Oct. 23 removal
of her niece's two children.
"I am a relative. How can they just
come in here and snatch these kids
out of my house on the reservation?"
asked Benjamin, pointing to the Indian
Child Welfare Act's prohibition of
such genocidal actions? "This is
happening because the Housing
Authority has called everyone and
told them I'm being evicted. But I'm
not getting evicted. They're trying to
evict me; legally, they can't evict me,"
she said.
On Oct. 2, Benjamin took temporary
legal custody ofthe two children, ages
two and four, on behalf of their
parents. She applied to Mille Lacs for
licensing as a foster parent, receiving
a favorable report from reservation
foster care coordinator Amy Kummet:
"Irene's home is clean and appears to
be a very stable environment. I
observed both children while at the
home and they seem to be adjusting
very well. It is my recommendation that
Jacob and Donavon continue to be
placed with Irene Benjamin," Kummet
wrote in an Oct. 8 letter to Ramsey
County social worker Jane Lafroth.
The following day, Friday, October
9, the Mille Lacs Housing Authority
served Benjamin a summons to appear
at an eviction hearing the following
Wednesday. Suggesting the two
events were not unrelated, Benjamin
says the Housing Authority also
notified Kummet ofthe proceedings.
"Amy [Kummet] came over and said
she heard I was being evicted and she
was concerned. I explained to'her
what was happening, and she said she
understood that I wasn't being evicted,
that I was defending myself in the legal
process and that she was going to
recommend the children remain in the
home," Benjamin said. "The reason the
Housing Authority contacted Amy
was they wanted her to take away
those kids. When she wouldn't do it,
that's when Ramsey County was
notified."
Benjamin speculates that the Housing
Authority wanted the children out of
the house in part to facilitate her
eviction. "They used those kids, that
was their ace in the hole," she said.
Indeed, even in a one-sided court, it
will be difficult to justify Benjamin's
eviction under the circumstances. A
domestic abuse victim, Benjamin
obtained a restraining order against
her husband in 1997. Because he failed
to comply with counseling
requirements, an Order for Protection
Steal/to pg. 3
Judge rejects Indian's challenge to
legislative district redrawing
HELENA (AP) - A federal judge has
rejected claims by several Indians that
the redrawing of legislative districts
six years ago illegally discriminated
against Indian voters and some
boundaries should be moved.
The reapportionment of the state
following the 1990 census did not
dilute the voting strength of minority
tribal members in violation ofthe Voting
Rights Act, said U.S. District Judge
Paul Hatfield of Great Falls. He said he
found no proof the state commission
responsible for the new districts set
out to put Indian voters at a
disadvantage.
"The commission did not depart from
normal redistricting procedures and
the commission did not apply the
state's substantive redistricting
criteria in a manner that discriminated
against American Indians," Hatfield
wrote.
He also said Indians provided no
evidence that blocs of white voters in
the contested districts were routinely
able to outvote the Indian minority and
prevent Indian candidates from getting
elected. Such a pattern of voting is
necessary to find a violation of the
federal law, he noted.
The lawsuit had asked Hatfield to
order the creation of three new districts
that have majority Indian populations,
just as tribal members had demanded
during the reapportionment process
following the 1990 census.
Ten tribal members from the
Blackfeet, Fort Peck, Flathead, Fort
Belknap and Rocky Boys reservations
said the state Districting and
Apportionment Commission violated
the voting rights law when it rejected
the suggested districts.
They claimed commission members
intentionally tried to limit the number
oflndian districts and made statements
during meetings that showed their
prejudice against Indians and disdain
for civil rights advocates supporting
their request.
State lawyers said the commission
did not dilute the voting strength of
Indians and actually enhanced their
Judge/to pg. 5

White Earth debt reported to exceed $9
million RBC Rep. Turney let off easy in DUI plea
By Gary Blair
White Earth is now in debt to the tune
of $9 million and the reservation's
$60,000 salaried executive director,
Diana King, is openly seeking
employment elsewhere, Press/ON
sources said this week.
The size of the debt was disclosed
when Mike Robinson, the
reservation's new public safety
director, asked King to purchase two
new snowmobiles for use by the
conservation department. King was
heard by those outside of her office as
she dropped the amount of the
reservation' s debt as part of her reason
for only allowing the purchase of one
snow machine. "You can only have
one, because the reservation is $9
million in debt," she was overheard
saying.
Snowmobiles and other equipment
used by the reservation's conservation
department were reported to have been
either stolen or destroyed when they
were left unprotected by former
officers.
In response to the White Earth debt,
your writer was told this week: "Now
that Rickie Clark, (the reservation's
former councilperson) is outof prison,
maybe he could let Robinson use some
ofthe snowmobiles that he used stolen
money to purchase. Or, maybe our
leaders could ask the snowmobile
White Earth/to Pg. 6
Feds void Table Mountain compact for
gaming
By Doug Casgraux
In a decision that could put the Table
Mountain Tribal Casino in jeopardy,
the Department of Interior has rejected
the Gaming Compact signed by Vern
Castro as Tribal Chairman ofthe Table
Mountain Band of Indians and Gov.
Pete Wilson (R) on behalf of the State
of California. Assistant Secretary of
the Interior on Indian Affairs Kevin
Gover said in a statement, "A long
term gaming compact is a grave
commitment by a tribe. Given the
uncertainty as to the legality of the
current leadership.we are unable to
consolidate the approved compact
represented as the will of the Table
Mountain People, that is why the
compact signed by Vern Castro has
been rejected.."
The U.S. Department of Interior in a
letter to the Table Mountain Tribal
administrator said that the Pala style
Compact was invalid because Vern
Castro's authority to negotiate was
invalid since he was not the "legitimate
chairman, representing the tribe's
concerns."
Gover also addressed a one-page to
letter to the legal and legitimate
Chairperson, Leanne Walker-Grant, not
Castro after she led as successful
recall effort to have Castro replaced as
the leader of Table Mountain
Rancheria. The surprising vote
ousting Castro and his government
erupted after nearly year-long disputes
between tribal factions regarding the
forced signing ofthe Pala Compact by
the tribe under pressure from tribal
attorney Howard Dickstein.
Dickstein, who is no stranger to
California Indian Gaming, represents
all the Indian tribes signatory to the
Feds/to pg. 5
Bison management isn't the cut and dried
issue some think it is
(Unless your talking Jerky)
By Lisa Morris
An article, first printed in the
Minneapolis Star and Tribune then
later in the Native American Press,
claimed, "Politics masquerades as
wildlife management in Yellowstone
National Park." For the last four
winters, we've been hearing about the
terrible bison management practiced
by the State of Montana and the
National Park System. Time and again,
nationwide articles have criticized the
official problem, disease control, and
its official cure, shooting buffalo. As
with any issue, truth needs to be
separated from fiction.
In the first place, the article claims
Yellowstone National Park is the "last
wild remnant" ofthe Bison. This isn't
true. Wind Cave National Park,
Theodore Roosevelt NP, the National
Bison Range in Montana, Fort
Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge,
Wichita Mountain NWR, Wood
Buffalo and Elle Island NP's in
Canada, and the Delta Junction herd
in Alaska are all wild herds. Although
some of these herds do have fences,
not all do and not all will continue to
have them forever. But even with
fencing, one can not deny these
animals are wild. Imprudent tourists,
Indian tribes involved in global-warming
conference
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - NASA is
seeing if it can uncover native wisdom
about the problem of global warming.
Representatives of 550 American
Indian tribes began meeting here
Thursday at a NASA-sponsored
Native Peoples/Native Homelands
Climate Change conference to explore
the implications of global warming on
native people and their lands. The
conference continues through Sunday.
"Voices from Native America
promise to bring fresh perspectives to
the body of scientific evidence that
suggests humans are disrupting the
balance ofthe world's climate," said
Verna Teller, a former Isleta Pueblo
governor who is project director for
the conference.
"This workshop will stimulate
people, the science community and
business leaders who have specific
knowledge of climate change," she
said.
Scientists believe even a few degrees
rise in the average global temperature
could have catastrophic effects on
coastal cities, economic systems,
agriculture and river systems in the
next few decades.
"Native peoples, with their spiritual
traditions and long histories of change,
adaptation and survival, can provide
invaluable contributions to the
understanding of climate change as
wel I as the development of sustainable
economies," said Bob Gough, a
workshop co-chair and consultant to
the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy.
For example, he said, Indian lands
are relatively undisturbed and have a
unprecedented dialogue among native wide range of indigenous plant and
Indian gambling measure on pace to cost
$120 million
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The two sides
fighting overaballot measure to loosen
restrictions on Indian gambling are
now on pace to raise $120 million by
Election Day, twice the previous record
foran initiative.
As of Thursday, the Indian tribes
backing Proposition 5 had raised $65
million while the Nevada casino
industry funding the No campaign had
$28.7 million foratotalof$93.7 million,
according to the secretary of state's
office.
The previous record for a single
initiative, $57.5 million, was set two
years ago in California by a securities
fraud measure that failed. "I was just
floored," said Craig Holman, project
director for the Center for
Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.
"It breaks all global records when it
comes to spending. There has never
been an initiative campaign anywhere
in the world that has had this much
money spent for and against it."
The ballot measure would allow
about 40 tribes with casinos to continue
using popular and lucrative video slot
machines that Gov. Pete Wilson
contends are illegal. About 85 ofthe
state's 107 tribes support the measure.
If Proposition 5 is defeated, gambling
tribes would have to switch to a limited
number of new, lottery-style slot
machines that the Yes on 5 campaign
believes won't be as profitable.
Eleven tribes have signed alternate
agreements with Wilson allowing
limited gambling operations with the
lottery-style machines. The Indians
say they have to spend large amounts
of money to get their message out.
"The Nevada casinos are spending
tens of millions to protect their billion-
dollar profits while the Indians are
defendingtheireconomic survival that
provides jobs, reduces welfare and
provides self-reliance," said Steve
Indian/to pg.5
Cross-border smuggling comes to light
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Charles
Williams thought he had something
better coming to him. He settled for
revenge. Afterall, he had helped Larry
Miller buildan illicit family enterprise
into a multimillion-dollar smuggling
cartel that operated between the United
States and Canada.
It was Williams who said he made
the initial introductions on the St. Regis
Mohawk Indian Reservation and put
Miller in touch with tribal businessmen
willing to buy tractor-trailer loads of
contraband tobacco and liquor.
Williams said it was he who helped
Miller illegally secure a tribal liquor
permit.
His reward? As Miller's organization
grew into a bootlegging empire,
Williams found himself cut out ofthe
action. It was then he decided on
retal iation and began cooperating w ith
Internal Revenue Service
investigators.
Beginning Monday, federal
prosecutors will describe forafederal
courtjury how greed, arrogance, deceit
and, eventually, carelessness
undermined the reservation-based
smuggling ring, which they say sold
smuggling/to pg. 3
White Earth debt reported to exceed $9 million
Feds void Table Mountain compact for gaming
Children removed from home of reservation activist
Bison mgmt. isn't the cut and dried issue some think it is
New Chairman of Blackfeet Nation speaks of hope, pg. 3
Lawrence thanks voters of 4A, pg. 4
Voice ofthe People
e-mail, presson@paulbunyan.net
Native
American
^
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded 111988
Volume 11 issued
A weekly publication.
Copyright Native American Press, 1888
attempting to get near them and ending
up seriously injured, can attest to their
wildness.
The "masquerade" alluded to by the
article actually occurred because real
wildlife management methods were
stopped by earlier outcry from groups
such as "Earth First." At the time, the
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife
and Parks (MT FWP) was in charge of
the management of Bison that
wandered into Montana. But because
of propaganda espoused by these
groups, the governor now has the
Department of Livestock managing
Bison/to pg. 3
animal species that can serve as key
indicators to monitor and document
climate change.
A National Aeronautics and Space
Administration scientist who initiated
the workshop, Nancy Maynard, said
NASA also is interested in American
Indians' historical knowledge of
environmental events, cultural
perspectives, research and expertise.
She said those could be valuable to
non-native scientific observations and
research on global warming.
The workshop is the last of 20 NASA
has held around the country to analyze
the potential consequences of climate
change on crops, energy production,
land and water resources,
transportation, human health, social
systems, biological diversity and the
environment.
Photo by Annie Frazier Henry
The 1998 Two Rivers River Native Film and Video Festival, being held at the Walker Art Center Auditorium in
Minneapolis, November 21 and 22, is a yearlong series of screenings and dialogues about Native film and video for
the 21st century. Pictured above, from Singing Our Songs - Mary Stella Bare Shinbone, Women Singers and
Drummers of Old Agency.
They steal children don't they? Ramsey County,
Mille Lacs remove kids from home of reservation activist
By Jeff Armstrong
Under threat of arrest, Ramsey
County social workers last week
removed two children from the home
ofa Mille Lacs tribal activist who is
fighting an unjust eviction order by
reservation housing officials.
"Those little kids were just ripped
apart. They were just getting settled
in at school. Now they're sitting in a
shelter in Ramsey County," said Irene
Wade Benjamin ofthe Oct. 23 removal
of her niece's two children.
"I am a relative. How can they just
come in here and snatch these kids
out of my house on the reservation?"
asked Benjamin, pointing to the Indian
Child Welfare Act's prohibition of
such genocidal actions? "This is
happening because the Housing
Authority has called everyone and
told them I'm being evicted. But I'm
not getting evicted. They're trying to
evict me; legally, they can't evict me,"
she said.
On Oct. 2, Benjamin took temporary
legal custody ofthe two children, ages
two and four, on behalf of their
parents. She applied to Mille Lacs for
licensing as a foster parent, receiving
a favorable report from reservation
foster care coordinator Amy Kummet:
"Irene's home is clean and appears to
be a very stable environment. I
observed both children while at the
home and they seem to be adjusting
very well. It is my recommendation that
Jacob and Donavon continue to be
placed with Irene Benjamin," Kummet
wrote in an Oct. 8 letter to Ramsey
County social worker Jane Lafroth.
The following day, Friday, October
9, the Mille Lacs Housing Authority
served Benjamin a summons to appear
at an eviction hearing the following
Wednesday. Suggesting the two
events were not unrelated, Benjamin
says the Housing Authority also
notified Kummet ofthe proceedings.
"Amy [Kummet] came over and said
she heard I was being evicted and she
was concerned. I explained to'her
what was happening, and she said she
understood that I wasn't being evicted,
that I was defending myself in the legal
process and that she was going to
recommend the children remain in the
home," Benjamin said. "The reason the
Housing Authority contacted Amy
was they wanted her to take away
those kids. When she wouldn't do it,
that's when Ramsey County was
notified."
Benjamin speculates that the Housing
Authority wanted the children out of
the house in part to facilitate her
eviction. "They used those kids, that
was their ace in the hole," she said.
Indeed, even in a one-sided court, it
will be difficult to justify Benjamin's
eviction under the circumstances. A
domestic abuse victim, Benjamin
obtained a restraining order against
her husband in 1997. Because he failed
to comply with counseling
requirements, an Order for Protection
Steal/to pg. 3
Judge rejects Indian's challenge to
legislative district redrawing
HELENA (AP) - A federal judge has
rejected claims by several Indians that
the redrawing of legislative districts
six years ago illegally discriminated
against Indian voters and some
boundaries should be moved.
The reapportionment of the state
following the 1990 census did not
dilute the voting strength of minority
tribal members in violation ofthe Voting
Rights Act, said U.S. District Judge
Paul Hatfield of Great Falls. He said he
found no proof the state commission
responsible for the new districts set
out to put Indian voters at a
disadvantage.
"The commission did not depart from
normal redistricting procedures and
the commission did not apply the
state's substantive redistricting
criteria in a manner that discriminated
against American Indians," Hatfield
wrote.
He also said Indians provided no
evidence that blocs of white voters in
the contested districts were routinely
able to outvote the Indian minority and
prevent Indian candidates from getting
elected. Such a pattern of voting is
necessary to find a violation of the
federal law, he noted.
The lawsuit had asked Hatfield to
order the creation of three new districts
that have majority Indian populations,
just as tribal members had demanded
during the reapportionment process
following the 1990 census.
Ten tribal members from the
Blackfeet, Fort Peck, Flathead, Fort
Belknap and Rocky Boys reservations
said the state Districting and
Apportionment Commission violated
the voting rights law when it rejected
the suggested districts.
They claimed commission members
intentionally tried to limit the number
oflndian districts and made statements
during meetings that showed their
prejudice against Indians and disdain
for civil rights advocates supporting
their request.
State lawyers said the commission
did not dilute the voting strength of
Indians and actually enhanced their
Judge/to pg. 5